AI and the risk of extinction

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⬇️ AI and the risk of human extinction

💻 Nvidia’s new AI supercomputer

👔 Sony’s incubator program for web3 and NFT startups

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AI could lead to extinction, researchers warn [Link]

It took a 22-word statement from top AI researchers, engineers, and business chiefs to raise yet another alarm against AI, this time on the risk of extinction posed against humanity.

The finer points of the high-profile statement:

• Published by a San Francisco-based nonprofit Center for AI Safety, the statement was co-signed by Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Geoffrey Hinton and Youshua Beng, two of the three AI researchers who won the 2018 Turing Award for their AI paper.

• “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” noted the short statement.

• The lean wording was intentionally made against a “push for a very large menu of 30 potential interventions,” which then “dilutes the message.”

AI systems’ range of threats and disadvantages that have been widely reported include misinformation and disinformation, enabling mass-surveillance, and fueling faulty “predictive policing” algorithms.

Nvidia’s new AI supercomputer [Link]

It’s a system weighing about “four elephants,” comprising over 150 miles of fiber-optic cable, 2,000 fans, and just one GPU.

During a keynote at Taipei’s Computex, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the Grace Hopper AI Supercomputer, otherwise known as the DGX GH200, connects 256 Nvidia Grace Hopper Superchips into a single GPU.

Why this is big, literally and figuratively: The “utterly incredible” system, now in full production, will give Google Cloud, Meta, and Microsoft first access to do exploratory research and push the boundaries of AI.

Users will benefit from rapidly advanced workloads (4-7x faster) in areas like deep learning, large-scale graph neural network training, and data analytic.

Once live, the AI supercomputer will help scientists address AI challenges that are otherwise deemed unsolvable or require months of training time to achieve.

Sony’s incubator program for web3 and NFT startups [Link]

Sony has partnered with Astar, a Japanese blockchain developer, to launch an incubator program investing in web3, NFT, and metaverse firms. This initiative is led by Sony Network Communications, a subsidiary of Sony specializing in IT solutions and software development.

A few key details:

• The incubator will be the metaverse platform Cosmize.

• One of the candidate firms will host the metaverse event using a space built on the Astar blockchain, while Snickerdoodle Labs, another candidate firm, will issue NFT tickets for the event and showcase NFT tech integration.

• The long list comprised some 200 firms, now narrowed to 19 projects.

The new move aligns with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s statement on web3-related businesses, the metaverse, and NFTs as growth engines for the national economy.

The metaverse’s depreciating property values [Link]

In the ever-evolving landscape of the metaverse, recent data highlights the aftermath of the crypto winter and its impact on property values:

• A 90% drop in metaverse property prices over the past year, as seen in Otherdeeds, The Sandbox, Decentraland, Somnium, and Voxels from January-May, a CoinGecko study shows.

• Land on the Otherside platform costs nearly 80% less than its all-time high price of 5 Ether in the previous year.

• The Sandbox and Decentraland have seen property values drop by approximately 90% and 87.8%.

Yet while the current outlook may seem grim, future projections still hold promise for the metaverse:

• By 2026, a quarter of people are expected to spend 1 hour a day engaged in activities within the metaverse, research insight firm Gartner predicts.

• Within the next 7 years, metaverse-related spending will reach a staggering $5 trillion, McKinsey projects.

Quick Hits

🎮 Gaming

• Here are the biggest NFT game publishers - and the makers of Final Fantasy and Assassin's Creed are leading the charge. (Link)

• PixelCraft Studios, the SG-based company behind web3 game Aavegotchi, posts triple revenue in FY 2022. (Link)

• The Witcher emerges as one of the most successful game series of all time, selling 75M+ copies. (Link)

• Digital gaming: North America leads the way in revenue generation, closely following Asia-Pacific. (Link)

• As it moves out of the shadow of Axie Infinity, Ronin Network launches the frantic all-guns-a-blazing NFT fest that’s The Machines Arena. (Link)

🕶 Fashion

• Floral NFTs: Prada set to unveil its 42nd Timecapsule NFT collection of physical tank tops backed by digital assets. (Link)

• Nike’s inaugural NFT sneaker sale on .SWOOSH sells 71K+ Our Force 1s NFTs, generating $1M. (Link)

• AI is shaking things up in fashion design via advanced algorithms that can analyze and predict trends. (Link)

• Bridal wear Pronovias names Marc Calabia Gibert as its new CEO and replaces Omandine Ohayon, who has held the brand portfolio toward the metaverse. (Link)

• The Singapore Fashion Council, working toward the local sector’s digital transformation, sees fewer fashion design graduates. (Link)

🏀 Sports

• In India, the highly anticipated TATA IPL Final gets livestreamed in the metaverse. (Link)

• Soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo jumps into a multi-year NFT partnership with Binance. (Link)

• College Basketball Report asks ChatGPT for the list of best centers since 2000. (Link)

• AI, active living, fitness and wellness, web3, and the metaverse emerge as bright spots for the Australian sports tech sector. (Link)

• This woman worked out in VR for a week - here’s what she discovered. (Link)

🎥 Media & Entertainment

• Black-owned media RollingOut uses AI for the release of The Little Mermaid in its digital cover feature. (Link)

• Dubbing actors are standing up against the use of AI in Hollywood. (Link)

• The Peculiar Pandora Expedition is an AI-generated “avatar” by Wes Anderson. (Link)

• Beijing’s Internet 3.0 white paper focuses on metaverse, a little web3, but not crypto. (Link)

• No VR headset, no problem: 3 ways to experience the metaverse. (Link)

• Dunamu, South Korea-based operator of crypto exchange Upbit, collaborates with the likes of HYBE for web3 supremacy. (Link)

🖼 Art

• Graphic designer Ashley Crossland sells 7,200 NFTs, earning nearly $621K (£500K) in a single night. (Link)

• NFT wash trading report surfaces amid declining trading volume. (Link)

• Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff prepares to launch his own NFT collection with Ordinals. (Link)

• AI, high-performance computing, and the metaverse are among the key themes of Computex Taipei 2023. (Link)

• EM! Museum and more: ​​5 must-see art destinations in the Voxels metaverse. (Link)

• Filipino national Artist Vicente Manansala's artworks are turned into NFTs and auctioned off. (Link)

🤖 AI

• Nvidia is building Israel-1, a powerful AI supercomputer in Israel to be partly operational by 2023’s end. (Link)

• Asus plans to sell the first managed AI service to be hosted at client facilities. (Link)

• What should you study for a job in AI? (Link)

• MIT researchers use a generative AI system to create novel and climate-friendly proteins. (Link)

• How to ease AI adoption in the workplace. (Link)

• WHO calls for caution in using AI for health. (Link)

💸 Funding & Partnerships

• Solana scores two new industry giants partnerships with Calyptus and Bladerite, strengthening the SOL ecosystem. (Link)

• SoftBank partners with NVIDIA for AI data centers across Japan. (Link)

• NFT marketplace Tabi secures $10M to develop gaming ecosystem on BNB Chain. (Link)

• Japanese virtual live music event platform and metaverse firm VARK raises 1B Japanese yen ($7.2M) in Series C funding for further product development. (Link)

• BitsCrunch and NOWNodes launch partnership to bring multi-chain NFT API data analytics to the NOWNodes ecosystem. (Link)

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All content on this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not aim to serve as or replace expert investment advice.

📈 If you are a startup building in the metaverse / web3 ecosystem and are raising capital, please reach out to Sfermion. Sfermion is an investment firm focused on accelerating the emergence of the metaverse 📈

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